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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Where to Park an RV in Venice, Italy

Aren't I just full of useful tips? So, when I left off we were headed to Venice proper in our 5 meter long, almost 3 meter tall RV that we rented in Munich. It is sweltering hot and I am wondering if Venice is really all it is cracked up to be, and wouldn't we be better off heading toward some nice beach somewhere? So we wind up at the central bus station right next to the first canal. There are a few public parking spaces, but most of them are earmarked for civil servants of some sort and have ominous looking signs showing your car being towed away.We actually considered taking a calculated risk and parking our gigantasaur in one of them with the rationale that they would have to go to considerable effort to tow the RV, and would most likely have to move other cars to get at it. We were pretty sure that no Italian would be in the mood to take on such a project since they were still in the throes of winning the 2006 World Cup the night before, an event so large that time stood still in Italy for a bit, enemies became friends and just about everybody stopped what they were doing to drive their cars through the streets honking and waiving the Italian flag. I can't even think of a comparison for the US. Moon landing maybe?Anyway, our good sense got the better of us and we decided against it. Then I saw a mechanic with a garage that would clear our RV and had the bright idea that maybe it was time to have the oil changed on our new rolling home. I think I am not the first one to try this, however, because he was on to me right away and was in no mood to do any work. Italy was the world champion after all.He did give me directions to a place where he claimed that "Tuto Wohnmobile" (Italian/German meaning "All the RVs") could park. Since I speak not a word of Italian, I just tried to decipher his enthusiastic arm movements and we set off in the general direction that he seemed to be the most excited about.After driving in the same circle 3 times, and unsuccessfully trying to fit ourselves in to one of the big parking garages (parking for normal sized vehicles seemed to be plentiful), we headed back to the big long bridge and decided to see if there were any more exits past the one on our circular tour. All of a sudden the flaw in our plan became obvious. We were not thinking like a bus! I mean, what place in the world has more tour buses rolling in than Venice, Italy? So there we had our answer and we just followed the line of buses into a roofless parking paradise the size of several football fields and were directed to our very own parking spot. The end.

PS, if you should happen to try this, answer "Yes" when the attendant asks you if you are going to take a boat ride. You have to decide yourself what your answer will be to the second question, but the first one is a definite "Yes".